Want to learn more about figure skating history? You are in the right place!
Created in 2013, Skate Guard Blog explores the overlooked, forgotten, and underappreciated corners of figure skating history - from little-known stories to fresh perspectives on famous skaters, eras, and events. There’s always something new to discover, so grab a cup of coffee and glide into the rich, fascinating history of the world’s most beloved winter sport.
Pre-order is now live for the Kindle E-Book edition of "Jackson Haines: The Skating King" and to promote to the upcoming book, you can enter for a free giveaway of two really fabulous exclusive products - Ice shower gel and Figure Eight body butter!
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GIVEAWAY CONTEST RULES AND CONDITIONS
Entries will be accepted until May 21, 2023 at 11:59 PM Atlantic Standard Time. Giveaway prize winner is determined by random draw from all entries received. 3 winners will be announced on Skate Guard's Facebook and Twitter channels and notified within 72 hours of the contest closing via the e-mail addresses provided. They will have 7 days to respond with their mailing address via e-mail to claim their prize. Alternate winners will be determined by random draw if any original winners do not respond via e-mail within 7 days. Prizes will be mailed to all winners within 2-4 weeks.
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Intrigued by the giveaway and the book? Pre-order your copy of the Kindle E-Book edition of "Jackson Haines: The Skating King" today! The e-book will launch alongside hard cover and paperback editions on November 1, 2023.
It's once again time to unpack the mail bag, answer some of your questions and share some of the interesting e-mails and social media messages that have come my way over the last few months. As always, if you have a question you'd like me to tackle or feedback on a blog please reach out via e-mail.
READER QUESTIONS
From Jennifer (via e-mail): "When did pairs start doing overhead lifts?"
A: Great question Jennifer! If you watch fabulous grainy newsreel footage of skating, you'll notice that a lot of the lifts that early pairs performed were along the lines of what we'd call dance lifts today. There were some exceptions to this though, of course. Overhead carry and adagio lifts were a thing (mostly in professional skating circles) in the 1940's. The partners doing the lifting didn't have a ton of experience in this area though and there are actually stories of men practicing off-ice by lifting arm chairs and sand bags before attempting lifts with their partners. Overhead rotational lifts really didn't start making their way into amateur skating until the 50's. As late as the early 60's, there was an ISU rule that overhead lifts could have a maximum of two revolutions. The German pair of Margret Göbl and Franz Ningel did four revolutions at the 1961 Europeans. It was very close between them and another German pair and some felt that was why they lost the title.
From Susan (via Twitter): "During the 1988 Calgary Olympics closing ceremony, Barbara Underhill & Paul Martini skated to a piece of music by a Canadian composer which to this day I really liked the program and the music but have never been able to find out what the piece was or who the composer was. I know this is rather obscure - but anyway I think they only skated this program once but it certainly stuck in my mind."
A: The music used for Underhill and Martini's program when the flame was extinguished in Calgary was "The Cello and The Girl" by Juno award winning musician Tommy Banks. While we're on the topic of that Closing Ceremony, I will say as a skating history lover, I thought the performances in that Closing Ceremony were an absolute dream. Beautifully put together and so many fabulous skaters participated - Toller Cranston, Robin Cousins, Dorothy Hamill, Barbara Ann Scott, Karen Magnussen, Don Jackson, Petra Burka, Debbi Wilkes, Brian Pockar... the list goes on and on. Brian Pockar was the Artistic Director, Kevin Cottam the choreographer and Frances Dafoe the costume designer. A beautifully done tribute to skating history. If you haven't seen it, it's on the YouTube - give it a watch!
From Jeff (via e-mail): "Why did they stop holding international competitions outdoors?"
A: Have you seen Mother Nature in action?! At the last World Championships held outdoors in Vienna in 1967, all events but the men's and women's school figures were held outdoors and the weather conditions weren't exactly lovely - competitors had to contend with changing temperatures, high winds, rain and snow. This not only put a damper on the competition, but affected ice conditions and caused delays as well. While competitors had an awful go of it skating outdoors sometimes, the real victims were the judges and officials who were outside in terrible weather conditions for prolonged periods of time, unable to move around and try to stay warm. While we might look at those stunning pictures of skaters competing in Davos and St. Moritz with the mountains in the backdrop in awe, the reality of how things often played out wasn't always as idyllic as photographs might suggest.
Engraving of skaters at the Palais de Glace, 1906
From @ismiicassie (via Instagram): "Do you have any unknown/hard to find information on the Théâtre du Rond Point in Paris that used to be an ice rink (Palais de Glace)?"
A: I took a look in my files and unfortunately, I do not have much on the Palais de Glace aside from some beautiful pictures and advertising posters. One book I'd recommend checking out is Jeanine Hagnauer's "Le patinage sur glace: historique". I'd also take a look in the collections of the Bibliothèque nationale de France. They have over sixty issues of a wonderful 19th French periodical called "Le Patineur" that was in print around the time the Palais de Glace opened. Hope this helps a little bit!
From Susan (via e-mail): Just a memory of the Old Smoothies. I couldn't wait to see them in the Ice Capades. I think my first was around 1952, Buffalo, NY. We all in our family skated at Buffalo Skating Club, which was Nichols School hockey rink part of the time. I was 7 then and knew how hard it was to keep on the correct edge. I always looked forward to seeing them perform!
Photographs of a scrapbook from the family of Armand Perren. Photo courtesy Anne-Catherine Rickli.
FAMILY SCRAPBOOKS
From Anne-Catherine (via e-mail): Armand [Perren] was the uncle of my mum (the brother of her mum). The wife of one of Armand's brother just died and I got different albums of ice skating. One is about Armand, some are about Fredi (his brother) and there are also a lot of newspaper articles about them.
From Richard (via e-mail): "I am a retired Navy Captain born and raised in West Seattle and graduated from West Seattle High School in '55 (Frances' school) and the University of Washington. I read your skating blog account of Frances Radecop’s murder with interest. Growing up, I lived a half-block away from both the Radecop and the Jones residences and although I did not know Frances, I knew her murderer, Carl Jones. In fact, he taught a gaggle of us younger neighborhood kids how to shoot basketball. The story of how he was finally caught is fascinating... I talked to two people who knew both Frances and Carl. One a classmate and the other my and their high school teacher. I also learned from Jack Porter, the assistant Seattle Chief of Police, who was a friend of my father’s and lived right across the alley from the Jones residence and knew him as a neighbor as well as a murderer, how they caught onto Carl. The Seattle Post Intelligencer newspaper, at the behest of the police, periodically reviewed and printed unsolved cold cases in the hopes of developing new leads. A copy of the newspaper featuring the Radecop murder with a large photo of Frances Radecop on the front page was lying on the table when Carl Jones signed up at a West Seattle boathouse for a local fishing derby. When Jones caught sight of the newspaper, his reaction was so pronounced that the woman recording the registration entries contacted the police, stating that she was convinced he knew something. Carl Jones had a police record. He had been arrested as a juvenile for burglarizing a boathouse and stealing an outboard motor. Moreover, Carl and Frances had not only been classmates but lived within a few doors of each other. It was enough. On the pretext that they were investigating another boathouse burglary, the police asked Jones to voluntarily come in and clear his name. He did so. They asked him to take a lie detector test, to which he readily agreed since he was innocent of the fictitious crime. As soon as he was hooked up they started questioning him about the Radecop murder. According to Jack Porter, Assistance Chief of Seattle Police (and later King County Sheriff), Jones confessed within 15 minutes. Omitting names, I wrote about this story, which I entitled 'I was taught to play basketball by a murderer,' in my high school creative writing class. When I finished reading the story out loud to the class, the teacher declared, 'You’re writing about the Radecop murder.' I acknowledged that that was true, to which she replied that almost everyone in the school, faculty and students, suspected Carl of the crime at the time. He and Frances had had a secret affair that she had broken off, which he took badly. Decades later I was telling this story to a group at a gathering when a woman who was a classmate of Frances confirmed this. But both the teacher and the classmate said the police never questioned anyone at the school and apparently no one thought to contact them, so he escaped justice for eight years. As a footnote, Carl Jones served honorably in the U.S. Army during the Korean War and was awarded the Bronze Star. A killer turned war hero turned convicted murderer."
Skate Guard is a blog dedicated to preserving the rich, colourful and fascinating history of figure skating. Over ten years, the blog has featured over a thousand free articles covering all aspects of the sport's history, as well as four compelling in-depth features. To read the latest articles, follow the blog on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube. If you enjoy Skate Guard, please show your support for this archive by ordering a copy of figure skating reference books "The Almanac of Canadian Figure Skating", "Technical Merit: A History of Figure Skating Jumps" and "A Bibliography of Figure Skating": https://skateguard1.blogspot.com/p/buy-book.html.
The son of Hulda (Inenfeldt) and Carl Gustaf Swallender, Carl Gustaf William 'Bill' Swallender was born on April 22, 1908 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His father was a Swedish immigrant; his mother the daughter of German immigrants. His father, a devout Lutheran, was an engineer who worked with the E.G. Staude Manufacturing Company in St. Paul. Carl Gustaf Swallender invented, among many things, an early form of voting machine.
As a young student at Edison High School, Bill excelled at tumbling and was acted in school plays. His father's death in 1928 forced him and the family's older siblings to find jobs to support their widowed mother and younger brothers and sisters. Bill worked as a stockman at a local auto parts manufacturing company and in his spare time, studied figure skating at the Minneapolis Arena. He was mentored by A.C. Bennett, the father of 1932 Olympian Margaret Bennett.
Katherine Durbrow, Arthur Preusch, Robin Lee, William Swallender, Edith Preusch and Miss Hardoldson at the 1933 Midwestern Championships. Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine.
At the age of twenty-two, Bill won the junior men's title at the 1933 U.S. Championships. His victory was considered quite something at the time. It was his very first time competing at Nationals... and he was a working-class man from Minnesota competing against well-to-do skaters from Eastern clubs. Recalling his experience at the event in "Skating" magazine, he wrote, "Being from the Mid-West where our contact with outside skaters has been limited, I speak with modesty. With respect to the skating of figures I was particularly impressed with the general all-round ability on the part of participants to skate the figures with good form, showing that the contestants had practiced and had been well trained in fundamental principles of competitive skating. Free skating on the part of the ladies, especially, was demonstrative of good style and showmanship, with a variety of composition in their programs. I watched with a great deal of enjoyment the pair skating, noting particularly the variety of lifts, nice timing and rhythm far superior to what I have been accustomed to observe. When it cae to dance, which has received very little development in the West... it was far beyond my expectations. I was also very much interested in the novel exhibition put on by the mixed 'four' from the Boston Skating Club. I think that the performance of this four surpassed anything in this line that I have seen."
Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine
The following year, Bill won the Midwestern title and was praised for his "comprehensive grasp of technical difficulty and of good form." A reviewer note, "His figures were large, beautifully retraced, and the turns good. The free skating program was comprised of many of the standard difficult jumps and spins with the inclusion of some delightful dance steps and novel moves." However, he finished a disappointing fifth in the senior men's event at the 1934 and 1935 U.S. Championships and gave up his bid for a spot on the 1936 Olympic team due to a recurring knee injury and the fact there just wasn't the money to pay for his trip to Germany if he earned a spot.
Bill turned professional in the autumn of 1935, accepting a well-paying position as the very first coach of the newly-formed Kansas City Ice Club in Missouri. In February of 1937, he married Julius T. Nelson's daughter Genevieve, whom he met at the Minneapolis Arena when he was sixteen and she was ten. Genevieve had been part of a sister act in the Ice Follies.
Photo courtesy "The National Ice Skating Guide"
In the years that followed, Bill taught at the Ice Club Of Baltimore, Broadmoor Skating Club, Figure Skating Club of Chicago, Philadelphia Skating Club and Humane Society, Atlantic City Figure Skating Club, Detroit Figure Skating Club, Berkeley Iceland and Washington (D.C.) Figure Skating Club, as well as the hugely popular summer skating schools in Lake Placid. An intelligent, soft-spoken man with a knack for connecting with young people, Bill was widely beloved by his students. In her book "Indelible Tracings", Patricia Shelley Bushman recalled, "He had a commanding knowledge and explained everything in great detail... He thought faster than he could speak and sometimes stuttered, especially when he was excited or nervous. He told his students: 'Sometimes you might have to get me to say it twice, and get it the second time around.' His stuttering didn't slow him down nor was he embarrassed by it; one student used to mimic him, but it only made him laugh. At competitions his face became redder as his enthusiasm mounted. Sometimes he raised his voice, more in exhilaration than anger, to light a fire under his skaters. Students realized Bill's adrenaline rush stemmed from his eagerness to get on the ice. He took notes in a teaching notebook. When a student achieved a new move, he quickly wrote it down in his chart."
Ginny Baxter and Bill Swallender
Bill's very first protégé was Dorothy Snell, the runner-up in the U.S. junior women's event in 1938 and 1939. He went on to coach Ice Follies star Bess Ehrhardt and Ginny Baxter, who won the free skate at the 1952 Winter Olympic Games in Oslo and the bronze medal at the 1952 World Championships in Paris. Over the years, many of the young people he worked with went on to become great coaches and judges - skaters like Donald Jacoby, Bill Kipp, Norma Sahlin, Joy Cunningham, Edgar Newbold Black IV and Cynthia Hanson. Bill did everything for his skaters, from sharpening their skates to giving them a spare room to sleep in for a while.
Genevieve and Bill Swallender. Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine.
In 1955 - the height of the studio rink craze - Bill opened Swallender's Ice Skating Studio in Detroit. In the summers, he closed the studio and taught with Pierre Brunet and Montgomery Wilson at the Michigan State University Ice Rink in East Lansing. At that point, his latest protégé was a talented eleven year old named Douglas Ramsay. Bill began giving Douglas lessons when he was only nine years old and soon became a second father to the young skater, taking him to baseball games and inviting him to the family home for Sunday dinners. In Douglas, Bill saw a future World Champion. The path to that eventual possibility began in 1961, when Douglas finished fourth at the U.S. Championships and earned a spot on the World team when Tim Brown, the bronze medallist, was unable to attend.
Douglas Ramsay's performance at the 1961 U.S. Championships
Tragically, both Douglas and Bill perished in The Sabena Crash in Belgium on February 15, 1961. Fifty-two year old Bill left behind his wife Genevieve and two sons, Bill and Erik. Horrifically, Genevieve learned of her husband's death not from a trusted friend or family member - but instead from a nosy reporter from the "Detroit News" who telephoned her Southfield home for a quote. Bill was posthumously inducted into the U.S. Figure Skating Hall Of Fame in 2011, alongside the rest of the talented skaters, coaches and officials who perished in The Sabena Crash.
Skate Guard is a blog dedicated to preserving the rich, colourful and fascinating history of figure skating. Over ten years, the blog has featured over a thousand free articles covering all aspects of the sport's history, as well as four compelling in-depth features. To read the latest articles, follow the blog on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube. If you enjoy Skate Guard, please show your support for this archive by ordering a copy of the figure skating reference books "The Almanac of Canadian Figure Skating", "Technical Merit: A History of Figure Skating Jumps" and "A Bibliography of Figure Skating": https://skateguard1.blogspot.com/p/buy-book.html.
"Jackson Haines: The Skating King" officially launches on November 1. You can pre-order both the eBook and paperbook version now at select stores! If you'd like to have your copy delivered to you automatically on release day, you can sign up now.
For more information about the book or to place a pre-order, click here.
In this day and age, it's hard to imagine an ISU Championship with only five competitors. Yet, back on February 12, 1911, that's precisely how many skaters were on the ice at the Yusupov Gardens in St. Petersburg, Russia for the 1911 European Figure Skating Championships.
The area of the ice that was cordoned off for the competition was decorated with festive flags, trees and strips of broad fabric, but the decorations didn't make much of a difference to the skaters or audience, who were battling bitterly cold, minus twenty two degree temperatures. The reigning European and World Champion Ulrich Salchow opted not to travel to Russia to compete after winning his tenth and final World title nine days prior in Berlin. In fact, only two skaters who competed in Berlin opted to make the trek to Russia to compete: Germany's Werner Rittberger and Hungary's Andor Szende. Szende had been started practicing for both events in October in Berlin, then spent six weeks carving out rockers and eights in Switzerland. In contrast, the lone Swedish entry, Per Thorén, had only started training fourteen days prior to his departure to Russia, and then only by moonlight. Without artificial lighting, he struggled to see the tracings of his figures on the ice. The judging panel in Russia was heavily stacked, with a Russian referee, five Russian judges, one judge from Russian Finland and one from Hungary. Thorén and Rittberger entered the event at a huge disadvantage, neither having any representation on the panel.
The competition started at ten in the morning with the compulsory figures. Per Thorén recalled, "It was raging cold and the ice so hard, that I thought that my skates would not cut into it. To protect me against the cold, for almost the full time I wrapped newsprint under my clothing. It helped some, but the cold soon penetrated through even this armour. The one who was best in this cold was Ivan Malinin from Moscow. Unaffected by the cold, he had been out one hour before the competition and practiced." Russia's Karl Ollo took the lead in the school figures and was praised for his small but accurate tracings. Thorén was second, followed by Malinin, Szende and Rittberger. However, the marks were somewhat all over the place. Two judges apiece had Ollo, Thorén and Malinin first, with the lone Hungarian judge supporting his own skater, Szende.
Ivan Malinin. Photo courtesy Sveriges Centralförening för Idrottens Främjande.
By two in the afternoon, a throng of Russians swarmed Yusupov Gardens, many pushing their way as close as they could to the ice to see Karl Ollo and Ivan Malinin skate. The St. Petersburg newspaper of that date (translated by figure skating historian Gunnar Bang) praised the Russian competitors thusly: "The latter part of the competition, the free skating, was opened by Malinin, who showed a temperament full of ruthless force executing free glides and numerous recurring combinations of steps. He went helter-skelter [through his performance] but it made little difference... The second man was Ollo, who the home crowd was well acquainted with. His musical program was safe, but not sufficiently expressive. The program was rich in combinations of figures, but he carefully avoided all of the jumps the audience was waiting to see in his program." Thorén followed with a program that received thunderous applause, and Rittberger was criticized for skating "a complete copy of Salchow's programs". Szende's program was praised for combining "athletic force" and "great beauty". Thorén won the free skate with the first place marks of three judges. Russian judge Alexei P. Lebedeff tied him and Rittberger, while two other Russians placed the German first. Again, the Hungarian judge had Szende in first. Thorén was able to overtake Ollo by 32.2 points and two placements to win the gold. Rittberger moved up to win the bronze, ahead of Malinin and Szende.
Per Thorén
Women's and pairs events were also held in St. Petersburg, but these were treated as separate categories from the European Championships. Ludovika Eilers and Walter Jakobsson won the pairs; Eilers the women's event over two Russian women - Xenia Caesar and Lidia Popova.
Skate Guard is a blog dedicated to preserving the rich, colourful and fascinating history of figure skating. Over ten years, the blog has featured over a thousand free articles covering all aspects of the sport's history, as well as four compelling in-depth features. To read the latest articles, follow the blog on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube. If you enjoy Skate Guard, please show your support for this archive by ordering a copy of figure skating reference books "The Almanac of Canadian Figure Skating", "Technical Merit: A History of Figure Skating Jumps" and "A Bibliography of Figure Skating": https://skateguard1.blogspot.com/p/buy-book.html.
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May is Asian Heritage Month and Canadian Jewish Heritage Month! Skate Guard celebrates the important history of skaters of Asian and Jewish heritage with extensive timelines from Canada and around the world, as well as required reading lists of past stories featured on the blog.
You can find all of the special content for Asian and Jewish Heritage Month by tapping on the top menu bar of the blog or visiting the following pages:
Photo courtesy KHM-Museumsverband, Theatermuseum Vienna. Used with permission.
Self-publishing is a one-pony show and writing a manuscript is just the tip of the iceberg. You have to edit, design a cover and back matter and work on the layout and formatting. You have to find ARC readers and do everything you can to get those all-important reviews on Amazon and Goodreads. When the book comes out, you have to deal with promotions, marketing, pricing, pitching your book to libraries and advertising through interviews, ads and social media.
After releasing my first three books, I wasn't sure if I really wanted to go through it all again - but once I started the process of putting together this biography of Jackson Haines, I couldn't stop. In the end, of all of the projects I have worked on - I really think I am proudest of this one.
I have a more or less finished, edited manuscript that I am continuing to tweak here and there and I wanted to give you all an idea as to what the book is going to look like. Following an Introduction, there is a chapter covering the year of his birth to 1863. Then, there are twelve chapters - each covering a year. The content serves almost like a diary of his travels through Europe but there are also many fascinating behind the scenes stories of his adventures. One of my favourite stories is about the time he rode a velocipede in Sweden.
Illustration of a man riding a velocipede, 1868. Photo courtesy National Archives.
A chapter on Jackson's legacy follows. It takes a deep dive into Jackson's personal life and rumours surrounding his time in Gamlakarleby (Kokkola) Finland and talks about his family members, grave and the skaters he inspired. I interviewed an actor that played him in a play in Finland and the 101 year-old great, great granddaughter of Jackson's uncle for this section. You might be quite surprised to know there's even a story that reads like something out of a Stephen King novel!
There is also a meticulously researched section on Jackson's family genealogy and a chapter on figure skating competitions. The book ends, of course, with acknowledgments to dozens of people who have helped along the way and detailed information on the provenance of the photographs in the book. There are over two dozen in all - several of which have never seen the light of day before.
One of the things I really tried to avoid in this book was waxing poetically about Jackson's role as a figure skating pioneer. I really want to let the material speak for itself.
Jackson Haines' story is nuanced and quite different than the narrative that has been passed down for decades... and rather than give the people what they want, this book is going to give them everything and let them come up with their own opinions.
Through the process of researching and writing this book, I really feel like I got to know someone who passed away over a hundred years ago - and I can't wait for you to have the same experience this fall.
Skate Guard is a blog dedicated to preserving the rich, colourful and fascinating history of figure skating. Over ten years, the blog has featured over a thousand free articles covering all aspects of the sport's history, as well as four compelling in-depth features. To read the latest articles, follow the blog on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube. If you enjoy Skate Guard, please show your support for this archive by ordering a copy of the figure skating reference books "The Almanac of Canadian Figure Skating", "Technical Merit: A History of Figure Skating Jumps" and "A Bibliography of Figure Skating": https://skateguard1.blogspot.com/p/buy-book.html.
The daughter of engineer Percival Horace Take and Alice Marjorie Young, Marilyn Ruth Take was born on March 11, 1928 in Toronto, Ontario.
Marilyn took up skating at the Toronto Skating Club at the age of nine and progressed quickly through the ranks, winning gold medals at her club's annual competition six times.
A student of iconic coaches Osborne Colson, Otto Gold and Madge Austin, Marilyn was one of the first Canadian skaters to employ principles learned in off-ice dance training to her skating and it paid off even at a young age. An accomplished ballerina, Marilyn studied at the Winnipeg Ballet and danced in one of the first all-Canadian ballets.
Marilyn earned her first medal at the Canadian Championships (a bronze in the junior women's event) in 1941, the same year she won the Toronto Skating Club's junior title. In 1942, she dropped to fourth and in 1943, won the silver.
Children's number from the 1942 Toronto Skating Club carnival. Marilyn Ruth Take is the butterfly pictured second from the left in the right photo. To her left is Suzanne Morrow.
By 1944, Marilyn had moved up to the senior ranks and made a strong statement in winning the silver medal behind Barbara Ann Scott, a placement she'd hold until 1946. Marilyn got her lucky break in 1947 when Barbara Ann skipped the Canadian Championships to compete overseas at the European and World Championships. This allowed Marilyn the chance to win the Canadian senior women's title in front of a hometown crowd - and she did it in spectacular fashion, defeating Suzanne Morrow, Nadine Phillips and Gloria Lillico by a forty-five point margin that year.
Due to time constraints, Marilyn skipped the 1947 World Championships in Stockholm and instead headed down to Washington, D.C. with Osborne Colson to focus on her training for the North American Championships, which were to be held in Ottawa that year. She finished an impressive third in the school figures in that event, but a disappointing free skate dropped her down to sixth overall behind Barbara Ann Scott, Janette Ahrens, Yvonne Sherman, Suzanne Morrow and Eileen Seigh. After the event, her family moved to Halifax, Nova Scotia. Marilyn remained in Toronto but was forced to take some time off from skating when doctors discovered a broken bone in her knee.
Competitors at the 1947 North American Championships (L-R: Janette Ahrens, Shirley Irene Lander, Suzanne Morrow, Barbara Ann Scott, Eileen Seigh, Yvonne Sherman, Marilyn Ruth Take)
Despite missing the World Championships, her disappointing showing at the North American Championships in 1947 and her injury, the 1947 season did have a silver lining for Marilyn. She secured spots on both the 1948 Olympic and World teams. Fortunately, she was able to resume training rather quickly after her injury healed. To improve her chances at the Olympics in St. Moritz, she headed down to St. Paul, Minnesota to work with Bud Wilson.
At the 1948 Winter Olympic Games in St. Moritz, Marilyn trained privately at the Palace Rink, where she had to shovel knee-deep snow off the ice in order to have a patch to practice on. Disaster struck in the school figures, when she lost her balance and had a freak fall. Falls in school figures were extremely rare so the judges had no clue what to do with her. One judge had her eighth; another in nineteenth.
Barbara Ann Scott, Marilyn Ruth Take and Suzanne Morrow at the 1948 Winter Olympic Games
Marilyn's free skating performance in St. Moritz to Amilcare Ponchielli's "Dance Of The Hours" turned some major heads. Captain T.D. Richardson, writing for "The Times" raved, "Marilyn Take of Canada... treated us to one of the most delightful displays of free skating... ever seen. It was a difficult program performed faultlessly, rhythmic and beautiful; it was, in a word, exquisite." In his 1959 book "Ice-Skating: A History", Nigel Brown noted, "She took a very bold step at musical interpretation, presenting a programme largely dominated by ballet movements. Her performance was beautiful and it showed clearly that skating in its highest form must interpret music."
However, the judges were every bit as befuddled by Marilyn's dazzling (and at that time unorthodox) free skate as they were by her fall in the school figures. One judge had her tied for fourth and another tied for sixth, while others had her in sixteenth and seventeenth places. She finished twelfth overall.
In a February 14, 1948 interview in the "Montreal Gazette", Marilyn shared her thoughts on her Olympic experience: "I'm very proud of myself. I don't think I did too badly in my first time skating in Europe, and the reason I'm proud is that I had two weeks practice before the competitions. I cut my foot back home in the summer and wasn't able to get down to training until just before the Olympics."
At the World Championships that followed in Davos, Marilyn finished ninth in the figures and dropped down to twelfth after the free skate, the same result she'd had at the Olympics.
Marilyn Ruth Take. Right photo courtesy "Skating" magazine.
Marilyn initially intended to continue in the amateur ranks for another two or three years after Barbara Ann Scott left the amateur scene but opted to professional instead. She signed a contract with the Ice Follies and took up permanent residence in the U.S. in June of 1948. She toured with the company until 1952 alongside such greats as Richard Dwyer, Frick and Frack and Ája Vrzáňová.
After marrying and having three children, Marilyn planted firm roots in Toronto. She started coaching in 1968 and remained active as a coach there for many years. She worked at the Toronto Cricket Skating and Curling Club, Granite Club, Thornhill Figure Skating Club, Upper Canada Figure Skating Club and North York Figure Skating Club under her married name Marilyn Wittstock. Her students included sectional, divisional and national medallists.
A devoutly religious woman, Marilyn donated her time and knowledge to girls and women involved in Toronto churches and offered them free skating lessons.
Marilyn passed away on April 14, 2023 at the age of ninety-five. At the time of her death, she was the last surviving member of Canada's 1948 Olympic figure skating team.
Skate Guard is a blog dedicated to preserving the rich, colourful and fascinating history of figure skating. Over ten years, the blog has featured over a thousand free articles covering all aspects of the sport's history, as well as four compelling in-depth features. To read the latest articles, follow the blog on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube. If you enjoy Skate Guard, please show your support for this archive by ordering a copy of the figure skating reference books "The Almanac of Canadian Figure Skating", "Technical Merit: A History of Figure Skating Jumps" and "A Bibliography of Figure Skating": https://skateguard1.blogspot.com/p/buy-book.html.
Princess Alexandra and Barbara Castle, the longest serving female Member of Parliament in England, had just launched International Women's Year. The Social Democratic Party had emerged victorious in Denmark's general election. A series of two PFLP terrorist attacks at the Orly Airport in Paris injured twenty three people. A postage stamp cost ten cents and the Average White Band's hit "Pick Up The Pieces" blared on Oldsmobile Cutlass 8-track players.
The year was 1975, and from January 28 to February 2, the Brøndby-Hallen just outside of Copenhagen played host to the first European Championships to be held on Danish soil. The multi-sport Brøndby-Hallen was constructed just two years prior, with seating for over four thousand spectators.
Photo courtesy Dansk Skøjte Union, Jette Ryttergaard. Used with permission.
This historic 'get' for the Dansk Skøjte Union was largely thanks to the tireless efforts of Finn Olsen, who served as the organization's President for nearly twenty years. Let's take a look at how things played out at the event!
THE ICE DANCE COMPETITION
Lyudmila Pakhomova and Aleksandr Gorshkov (left) and Hilary Green and Glyn Watts (right). Photos courtesy "Skating" magazine.
Sixteen ice dance teams competed in Copenhagen and to no one's surprise, Soviet couple Lyudmila Pakhomova and Aleksandr Gorshkov took a resounding lead in the compulsory dances and Blues OSP, earning several 5.9's in the process. They debuted a new free dance set to a jazzy version of Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake" and earned three perfect marks of 6.0 in that phase of the competition on the way to the top of the podium.
Aleksandr Gorshkov, Lyudmila Pakhomova, Aleksandr Zaitsev and Irina Rodnina
In winning their fifth European title, Pakhomova and Gorshkov set a new record in ice dance at the European Championships. Great Britain's Hilary Green and Glyn Watts did well to take the silver. Glyn was suffering from chest congestion and was quite under the weather throughout the event. Though Irina Moiseeva and Andrei Minenkov garnered a lot of attention with their speedy, dynamic free dance and placed second in that phase of the competition, they were unable to move up and finished fourth behind their teammates Natalia Linichuk and Gennadi Karponosov. The other two British teams, Janet Thompson and Warren Maxwell and Kay Barsdell and Kenneth Foster, placed a disappointing seventh and ninth.
THE PAIRS COMPETITION
Irina Rodnina and Aleksandr Zaitsev in Copenhagen
An unlucky number of thirteen couples were entered in pairs competition. As was so often the case in the seventies, Irina Rodnina and Aleksandr Zaitsev were in a class of their own. In the short program, they received three perfect marks of 6.0 for artistic impression. In the free skate, Rodnina had a rare miss on a side-by-side double Axel to double Salchow series, but the couple skated brilliantly otherwise. In winning her seventh title, Irina (like Pakhomova and Gorshkov in the dance) set a new record for European titles. However, since she won her first four titles with former partner Alexei Ulanov, Marika Kilius and Hans-Jürgen Bäumler's record of six set back in the sixties still stood (for the time being).
Video courtesy Frazer Ormondroyd
Silver medallists Romy Kermer and Rolf Österreich of East Germany made some history of their own when they became the first pair to land a throw triple loop in an ISU Championship. They earned eight 5.9's for their free skate, but still sat well behind Rodnina and Zaitsev. A fall on a throw double Axel kept their teammates, Manuela Groß and Uwe Kagelmann in third. Both teams trained at the SC Dynamo Berlin with coach Heinz-Friedrich Lindner. Karin and Christian Künzle's fifth place finish was notable in two respects. They were the first Swiss pair to make the top five at Europeans in ten years, and they were the first twins to crack the top five at Europeans as well.
THE WOMEN'S COMPETITION
Christine Errath (middle), Dianne de Leeuw (left) and Anett Pötzsch (right) on the podium
East Germany's Christine Errath, the reigning European and World Champion, was heavily favoured to win the school figures, but she had an admittedly terrible day and placed only fourth. Switzerland's Karin Iten was the winner because six judges placed her in the top two, though West Germany's Isabel de Navarre, who placed third, had the most first place ordinals. Dianne de Leeuw, a Californian representing Holland, was second.
Both Christine Errath and Dianne de Leeuw turned out exceptional performances in the short program, with Errath winning that phase but de Leeuw taking the overall lead because of Errath's showing in the figures. In the free skate, Errath made history as the first woman to land a triple toe-loop in combination in an ISU Championship. de Leeuw landed no less than four double Axels, one of them in combination. In a five-four split of the judging panel, Errath came out on top, with her fourteen year old East German teammate Anett Pötzsch taking the bronze with a gutsy program that included an unplanned triple Salchow near the end, after she fell on her first attempt. The previous year's bronze medallist Liana Drahová of Czechoslovakia finished fourth ahead of Isabel de Navarre and Susanna Drianno, another Californian who moved to Milan to represent Italy internationally. Karen Iten had a disastrous showing in the free skate, placing nineteenth, and dropped all the way to tenth overall.
THE MEN'S COMPETITION
Vladimir Kovalev (center), John Curry (left) and Yuri Ovchinnikov (right) on the podium. Photo courtesy "Ice & Roller Skate" magazine.
Notably missing from the men's field of twenty one was defending European Champion Jan Hoffmann. The nineteen year old student of Jutta Müller from Chemnitz was forced to take the season off while recovering from a knee cartilage operation. In his absence, twenty-five year old Sergei Volkov of the Soviet Union earned first place marks from seven judges and two ties to take a strong lead in the school figures. Second and third were Vladimir Kovalev and John Curry.
Vladimir Kovalev. Photo courtesy "Skating" magazine.
In the short program, Sergei Volkov made an extremely costly error on his jump combination - two-footing his triple Salchow and omitting the required double loop altogether. Kovalev and Curry both skated very well, landing their triple combinations. Though Curry's triple loop/double loop combination was more difficult than Kovalev's triple Salchow/double loop, he received lower marks. Quoted in the book "Black Ice: Life and Death of John Curry", Curry recalled, "Before [the free skate] took place, I had a visit from the International Skating Union officials. I was warned that the costume I had worn for the compulsories - an electric-blue leotard and pants with a white vapour trail encircling the body - had upset the judges, and that I should not wear such a controversial outfit again as it had caused me to lose marks. I was amazed - it seemed that the supposedly conservative judges much preferred the sequins, circus spangles and gaudy beads that were the current vogue amongst the male skaters."
Sergei Volkov's troubles continued in the free skate, with problematic landings on two different triple jumps and a fall on a double Axel. Vladimir Kovalev had one of the best skates of his career, landing three different triple jumps and earning a slew of 5.9's and a perfect mark of 6.0 for technical merit from the West German judge. In winning the gold medal, Kovalev made history as the first Soviet skater to win an ISU Championship in singles skating. Nikolay Panin-Kolomenkin, of course, had won the gold medal in the 1908 Olympic Games in special figures, but never won a European or World title.
John Curry's work with Carlo and Christa Fassi paid off with a strong performance that featured a clean triple Salchow and triple toe-loop. He received a perfect mark of 6.0 for artistic impression from the French judge and earned the silver medal, skating in a plain black outfit to appease the judges. Soviet skater Yuri Ovchinnikov captured the bronze, with an athletic and imaginative performance of his own that featured two clean triple jumps. John Curry recalled, "It was a sweet moment for me. In some ways it meant more to me than any other result in my career, because I had done what everyone had told me was impossible - I had managed to claw my way back from obscurity and was once again in the front rank of international contenders."
Skate Guard is a blog dedicated to preserving the rich, colourful and fascinating history of figure skating. Over ten years, the blog has featured over a thousand free articles covering all aspects of the sport's history, as well as four compelling in-depth features. To read the latest articles, follow the blog on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube. If you enjoy Skate Guard, please show your support for this archive by ordering a copy of the figure skating reference books "The Almanac of Canadian Figure Skating", "Technical Merit: A History of Figure Skating Jumps" and "A Bibliography of Figure Skating": https://skateguard1.blogspot.com/p/buy-book.html.
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